There’s something slightly unusual about the way people talk in Dubai. Sit in a café long enough and you’ll hear it. Not just casual chatter. Plans. Half-built ideas. People discussing businesses that don’t exist yet. Someone talking about a move they haven’t made. Someone else explaining a risk they’re about to take. It feels like…
It’s a phrase quite commonly uttered by new arrivals in the Emirates: “I’m only here for couple of years.” It’s spoken as if this is a temporary thing, almost without even thinking. Maybe one has got a job that lasts only one or two years, a short contract, a project assignment. The idea is straightforward:…
Most arrive in Dubai expecting a gargantuan city. One with skyscrapers so high that they seem to touch the sky, packed roads, and cranes that stick up like trees all over. It felt huge to me during those first few weeks almost too much. What was surprising was that after living here for a while,…
You know when a city feels like it’s running after something you can’t quite identify? That’s Dubai for you. It doesn’t broadcast its desire to be the greatest with flashy ads or loud speeches. In fact, it doesn’t even have to. The ambition is perceptible everywhere – the streets, the skyscrapers stretching towards the sky,…
You can spot if someone is looking at the desert for the first time. Initially, they may treat it just like a beautiful view. Something to capture with a camera from a distance. A brief stop between the city attractions such as the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, and a beach sunset afterward maybe. But when…